An apology to my fellow Metbloggers for my recent lack of posts. I went on vacation, then got sick, then got a new job, then wallowed in self-pity about how difficult my schedule was getting.

Enough about that.

Last Sunday, I stopped by A Cappella books in Little Five Points for reading and signing by Jack Pendarvis.

Pendarvis is a McSweeney’s contributor, one-half of the duo that created the Rudy And GoGo World Famous Cartoon Show, an Atlanta resident, and most importantly (to me) he’s the author of a hilarious book, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure.

The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure is a collection of, I believe, nine stories. The title story, which Pendarvis read from on Sunday, concerns an upstart author named Willie Dobbs. Dobbs is on a quest to write a history of the United States. There’s one problem, however. Dobbs is, and this is Pendarvis’s description, “the worst writer in the world.”

To back up his claim, Pendarvis read aloud from Dobbs’s penned recollections of writing his history. Dobbs is truly awful. Fortunately, he’s awful in a hilarious way. He writes sentences that overflow with adverbs and thesaurus words. In the short reading on Sunday afternoon, I heard about 10 sentences that would would place well in the Bulwer-LyttonFiction Contest .

So, my point? (Not that I really need one. This is a blog, after all).

My point is that Jack Pendarvis is not only a local writer, but a very talented one who has written a very funny book. Buy it. Or at least look at it next time you’re bookshopping.